


what do you know about quantum theory?

by itllsetyoufree



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, does kara get wing-womaned by a child? possibly, pretty rude honestly, this idea smacked me in the face in the shower and absolutely ruined the relaxing vibe i had going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25020715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itllsetyoufree/pseuds/itllsetyoufree
Summary: “This is just… a lot of people for a book about quantum physics, don’t you think?”Or, Lena's a famous physicist who's just released a new book, and Kara's really just very gay.Or, the book signing au
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 112
Kudos: 1654





	what do you know about quantum theory?

The bookstore is teeming with people. On a normal day, it’s a cozy little neighborhood place with small mountains of books piling up on the floor and overstuffed armchairs big enough to curl up in for an hour or two. But today, it’s packed. A line of people snakes through the stacks, out the door, and halfway down the block, mostly college students and young academic-looking types. Kara, being neither, sticks out like a sore thumb. She’s the only person in the whole store not slouched under the weight of a backpack, a stack of books, or a laptop bag. She’s also the only person in the whole store with a ten-year-old in tow. 

“Aunt Kara, how much longer?” 

Kara shakes her head to wake herself up, blinking exaggeratedly a few times to try to keep her eyes open, and glances around wistfully for one of those armchairs. They’d been waiting on line since six in the morning, first outside the bookshop, and then inside once it opened, and Kara had run out of coffee hours ago. 

How much longer, indeed. Kara looks down at her niece, unable to keep a smile off her face as she watches the girl bounce up onto her toes to try to see the table at the front of the line. 

“It’s almost ten o’clock now. Any minute,” Kara answers her, hoping it’s true.

“We’ve been waiting _forever.”_

Kara puts her hands on her hips and tries to school her expression, but the pout that she’s met with makes her break into a smile. 

“Yes, well, _someone_ wanted to be first in line,” Kara teases, with a pointed smile and one eyebrow raised.

“But we’re _not_ first in line. We’re, like, fifth in line.”

Kara shrugs, bewildered. “That was… surprising, actually. Who knew Lana Luthor was this popular?”

“It’s _Lena_ , Aunt Kara, oh my god. Get her name right.”

“Sorry, whatever. Lena.”

“It’s not whatever! She’s famous!”

Kara winces and looks around to make sure no one’s paying too much attention to them. When she looks back at Claire, she murmurs, “This is just… a lot of people for a book about quantum physics, don’t you think?”

Claire’s jaw drops a little, and Kara is met with a blank, incredulous stare. She immediately puts her hands up in the air in surrender.

“Sorry.”

“What—” Claire blinks at Kara, offended. “You’re lucky I’m even letting you go up there with me.”

“Um, excuse me,” Kara argues back, equally offended. “You’re lucky I drove you here at five in the morning. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Claire rolls her eyes, and Kara begins to dread puberty. Finally seeming to understand Kara’s need to speak quietly, however, Claire leans closer even as she crosses her arms in defiance. 

“You _wanted_ to come, but only because you think she’s pretty.”

Kara huffs. “Hey. I like quantum physics, okay?”

“Aunt Kara, what’s the name of her book?”

“Um.”

Kara presses her lips together, stretching up onto her toes to look for a promotional poster of some kind while Claire snorts next to her. Kara’s still in the middle of coming up with something snarky to say back when there’s a commotion up front, and Kara looks back up as the most gorgeous woman she’s ever seen walks out from a back room to sit at the tables arranged up by the front of the line. 

Despite the smattering of applause and cheers from the crowd, Lena sits down too quickly for Kara to get a good look and is obscured by the people in front of them. 

The people ahead of them in line are called up one by one, and Kara ignores how her niece is bouncing next to her to watch Lena Luthor meet her fans. She gives them each a smile, signs their books, chats with them for a few moments. She seems genuine, and everyone walks away smiling. Claire is practically vibrating next to her when it’s finally their turn. 

“Hi there! Thanks so much for coming.”

Kara blinks as Lena’s attention shifts to her. She has striking clear green eyes and the most powerful jawline Kara’s ever seen, and she’s _stunning,_ and she’s watching Kara with an amused look on her face. Then, somewhere in the back of Kara’s mind, she realizes she’s been staring at Lena for the last ten seconds and hasn’t said a word. 

“How are you ladies doing today?”

Lena’s gaze is still squarely on Kara, who fidgets nervously under her attention. She really should have done a little more research into Lena’s book.

“Oh! Good, I’m good. Thanks. How are you? Um. We’re actually here for…” Kara gestures to Claire.

Lena’s smile is still firmly in place as she shifts her attention away from Kara, but it grows into a bright, beaming thing as she focuses on Claire.

“Hi sweetheart,” Lena’s grinning. Her profile is magnificent, and Kara has to click her teeth together to make sure her jaw isn’t hanging open. “You’re here to see me?”

Claire grips her book tighter in her arms and nods shyly before she hands it over to Lena, the bravado she had with Kara all but gone. “I really like your book.”

Lena’s eyebrows raise as she takes the book from Claire, twirling her pen around her fingers. If possible, her smile grows even more, and, god, how had Kara not noticed those eyebrows before?

“You read it?”

“Yeah! My mom got it for herself, but, uh. I kind of stole it and then she let me have it and showed me some of the other papers you’ve written.”

Kara watches, transfixed, while Lena blinks slowly at Claire, looking moderately impressed before giving Claire a warm smile as she thumbs open the cover of the book and murmurs a soft, _What’s your name, darling?_ as she begins to sign it. 

A minute later that beaming smile is back and focused on Kara this time, and Kara thinks she might go blind because of it. 

“Well you’ve got a great mom,” Lena’s eyes are warm as they regard Kara, and Kara feels herself flush at the compliment even as she opens her mouth to protest, when Lena continues. “Thank you for inspiring an interest in STEM. We need all the smart ladies we can get, right?”

Lena turns her head to wink at Claire, who grins, but then— “Oh, no. My mom is at home actually. This is my Aunt Kara. She doesn’t care at all about quantum theory.”

“Wha— hey!” 

Kara forgets, briefly, about clenching her teeth together, and her jaw drops open as she stares at her niece. She can hear Lena chuckling across the table and glances back and forth between them, bewildered.

“Oh really,” Lena’s smile changes into a smirk as she turns to look at Kara again, and Kara shifts her weight nervously under Lena’s gaze. “Is that so?”

“Yeah!” Claire continues, bolstered by how Lena’s teasing Kara. “She doesn’t even know what your book is called, but when I showed her a picture of you yesterday, she said you’re the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen.”

Kara’s jaw drops as she whips her head around to gape at Claire. 

_“What?!”_ Kara gasps at Claire as Lena bursts into laughter. “Oh my god, you traitor! Are you _kidding_?”

“Were _you_?” Claire retorts, but she’s biting her lips to hold back a grin and raising her eyebrows and, frankly, looking entirely too much like Alex for Kara to handle. On the other side of the table, Lena is trying rather unsuccessfully to hide her laughter behind her hand, and Kara looks between them, sputtering. 

“Okay, what— I mean, no, I wasn’t kidding. I just—” Kara takes a breath and pivots back to Lena. “I mean it’s true first of all, even more so in person by the way, really, just congratulations on your whole… face, but _you_ ” she turns back to Claire. “Are _so_ grounded.”

Kara watches her niece’s face contort and tries to ignore for a moment the way her heart starts pounding as she sees Lena grinning up at both of them, wiping tears of laughter away out of the corner of her eye. 

“You know you literally can’t ground me. Mom would think this is hilarious.”

 _Well that’s true,_ Kara thinks. “Well, we’re not going for ice cream anymore.”

Claire’s jaw drops. _“What.”_

Somewhere behind Lena, a security guard clears his throat, eying them pointedly as he makes a _‘wrap it up’_ motion with his finger. Loath as she is to leave Lena behind, Kara takes the hint and places her hand on her niece’s shoulder as she adjusts her glasses.

“Hah. Right, well. It was great to meet you. Thanks for signing the book. Say thank you, Claire.”

“Thank you,” Claire smiles at Lena after rolling her eyes at Kara. 

Kara steers her niece away by the shoulders to make room for the next people in line. She turns to look over her shoulder briefly and offers Lena a small smile when she finds the woman watching them go. 

“Oh, Aunt Kara?” she hears a teasing voice from behind her, just after they’ve taken a few steps away.

Turning in place, Kara finds Lena smirking at her from behind the table, eyes sparkling with mirth as she holds out a copy of her book. 

“Would you like a book too?”

“Oh,” Kara replies, stepping awkwardly back to the table, mentally debating the merits of owning a book on quantum physics. “Uh. Yeah. Yes. I do, sure. Thank you.”

She reaches out to take the book from Lena, but Lena pulls it back out of Kara’s reach and leisurely flips open the cover to sign it. Kara glances over her shoulder at the line of disgruntled people behind her and smiles meekly at them, chuckling nervously as she adjusts her glasses again. When she turns back to Lena, Lena’s offering the book back to her with a smile.

“Here you go. On the house.”

“Oh,” Kara feels her cheeks warm and shakes her head. She smiles back at Lena as she backs away from the table. She waves the book in the air, “Thank you!”

 _"Oh my god,_ ” she wails when she gets back over to Claire. She knocks her forehead against the hard front cover of the book and groans. “You are in so much trouble. That was _mortifying_.”

“Yeah it was,” Claire agrees readily. Kara glares at her. “She wrote that she wants to work for me one day in mine! How cool is that? What’d she put in yours? And are we seriously not getting ice cream?”

It’s Kara’s turn to roll her eyes, even as she nudges the girl good-naturedly. Of _course_ they’re still going for ice cream. _Obviously_. She’s just going to keep that to herself a little longer. 

It’s not until they’re stepping out of the bookstore and into the morning sun that Kara finally flips open the cover of the book Lena gave her. There, scrawled in the corner in neat script, is Lena’s name and a phone number. 

Kara stops dead on the sidewalk and stares at the ink as a smile tugs its way onto her face.

“Yeah,” Kara says slowly as she looks back up at her niece. “You can have some ice cream now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr [@itllsetyoufree](https://itllsetyoufree.tumblr.com)


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